Little Book of ANZACS

Young nations do the bidding of empire and send their youth to a faraway war. Their soldiers arrive with a reputation for rebelling against authority and ill-discipline. They fight in an ill-fated campaign, under foreign command, against a well dug in enemy. Month after month they shoot and die in a whirling furnace of shrapnel and cordite. The men and their enemy, the air and the trenches: filled with blood, dust, ice, and fire. The disrespect for authority remains. But in the heat of battle - the infantrymen youth of Australia and New Zealand carve a reputation for bravery and recklessness, for discipline under fire, for cheerfulness, ingenuity and mateship. The sacrifice of the ordinary men and women of the ANZACS birth a legend that inspires today. ANZAC came to mean more than a Corp of men or a site of landing. The ANZAC story is the tale of new world nations, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the old, and being up to the test. 'Fierce with the anger of men who had seen their mates fall... they fire until their barrels are too hot to touch.' - E.C. Bulley 'I hope you in Australia are not ashamed of us; we have done our bit and no blame can fall on us.' - Lieutenant Noel McShane of the AIF's 1st Battalion